Girona is described as a fifty-gun galleass, probably carrying both bronze and iron cannon, though the surviving sources disagree about details. Her reduced arrangement of perhaps twenty-eight oars per side and four rowers per oar may reflect modifications that made her more galleon-like for Atlantic service. Her normal complement also included about 120 sailors to work the rig and 186 soldiers. Those figures make the roughly 1,300 people aboard at her loss an extreme overload rather than ordinary manning.
Chapter · 9:55-14:37
Girona's armament, crew, and Atlantic modifications
Girona's fifty guns and altered rowing arrangement reflect the adaptation of a Mediterranean galleass for Atlantic service.